What do you think?

I have thought long  and hard about this: from the beginning of 2017 I'm wondering whether to just give one prize each week (randomly chosen and provided by me) instead of lots of sponsorship. One of my main concerns is my use of time, particularly as John's health is not getting any better. I'm asking myself whether it is wise to keep using so much time and energy in organising challenges that are sponsored.

I have immensely valued the generosity of so many sponsors in the six years that I've been running my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenges weekly, but I have to admit that it does cause me a lot of work. This is the time of year (or before this if I'm organised enough) for me to ensure I have sponsors for the coming year, which obviously involves many emails backwards and forwards and ensuring that dates are put correctly on the calendar.

Then, week by week, I need to do the random.org selections for all the prizes, include this in the blogpost for the new challenge, also put the winners on the facebook page and then deal with the emails that come in from the winners. This entails getting in touch with the sponsors to inform them of the winners and then ensuring that the prizes have reached the winners.

Another thing I need to do with some sponsors is to ensure that I use images kindly supplied by them, which, in some case, means I can't make my designs too far ahead.

I know that many of you reading this have been regular contributors over the years and I would value your opinions ... and, of course, the opinions of anyone who happens to read this.

It might seem early to be thinking about January 2017, but not if I need to get sponsors.

So, my proposal is that I give one prize each week and post this to the winner.

As for the challenge themes, I'm thinking of having 'anything goes as long as it's Christmas' with an optional theme each week. What do you think?

Would the lack of sponsorship put you off entering the challenges?

I'd value your comments here ... or, if you wish, email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com

My monthly Christmas extra challenges would not be affected ... I would still have these sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps if they are willing to do so.

CHNC challenge 297: vintage or anything goes as long as it's Christmas

Please note that I publish the prize winners here and on our facebook page, but don't notify winners individually - it is up to you all to check to see if you have won and email me as requested. There are one or two unclaimed prizes, so it's worth having a look back to see if you were a winner.

Please note that my email to send to is craftyhazelnut@gmail.com

Before I tell you about this week's challenge, I need to let you know the winners of challenge 296. There were four opportunities to win a prize.

The first winner:

Number 11: Pauline, who shared this lovely tag:

Congratulations, Pauline. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com with your full name and address so I can arrange for you to receive your lucky dip pack of Kanban products from Foil Play.

The second winner:

Number 33: Marcia Kamano, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Marcia. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your chosen CD-rom from Ooh la la Creations.

The third winner:

Number 59: Ginny B, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Ginny. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your three digis from Crafty Sentiments.

The fourth winner:

Number 51: Misseke, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Misseke. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your three sets of papers from Lozzy's collection.

The fifth winner:

Number 17: Megan, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Megan. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your three digital images from Oddball Art Co by Lizzy Love.

As this is the 1st Saturday in the month, this is the theme for:

Challenge 297:

vintage
or anything goes as long as it's Christmas

This week there are four opportunities to win a prize as usual, winners will be chosen randomly. I do hope we will get a lot of entries this week to encourage these wonderful sponsors.

The first sponsor is Dazzling Ace Designs:

'Hi Suzy B here....Dazzling Ace Designs....The Home of all things Vintage and more.....I mainly specialize in Vintage an era the never seems to date.....but I have decided to diversify into other ranges, check out my cute and fantasy range and also my Shabby Chic Range .....most of my images are printed on to a good quality glossy photo card....those that are not are printed on to a good quality smooth white card 300gsm......my images are ideal for Journal Cards/Toppers, Cardmaking Scrapbooking, Altered Art, Memory Books and more....I add new items each week, so please if you have time please pop back and have a peep, I am sure you will not be disappointed..... Hugs Suzy B'

The prize for the randomly chosen winner will be £10.00 to spend in the EBay Shop Dazzling Ace Designs on any of the images.

The second sponsor is Star Stampz:

Sarah, the owner, says:

'This is a branched account and shop just for my digital stamps and downloads. My main shop has all my art merchandise and prints. I've discovered the world of stamping more recently but the artist in me was very attracted by the creativity. I hope to do more art available as digistamps for others to create with!'

The randomly chosen winner will receive three digital images of their choice from Star Stampz.

The third sponsor is Lunagirl Images:

'My name is Karen, owner of Lunagirl Images. In 2004, after collecting vintage ephemera for most of my life, I started digitizing and restoring images and designing digital supplies for artists and crafters (my husband collected antique books and prints, so we had quite a house full!) We are proud to have been the first company to offer digital vintage image collections of this size and quality at prices affordable to the home crafter.

At Lunagirl.com (and in my etsy shop) I currently offer you several hundred unique digital collage sheets and dozens of themed craft CDs -- over 30,000 images so far! They are a great resource for card making, scrapbooking, jewelry making, and much more, easy to use, carefully researched and curated, all thoughtfully organized and lovingly cleaned up, ready to you to use in your projects. I love altering and embellishing these beautiful and fascinating images and seeing what my customers create with them.

In addition to digital art and design, I enjoy painting on wood, creating assemblage icons and shrines, reading history books, bellydancing, cooking, and sewing with my vintage Singer. I'm also blessed to be the mom of two teenaged boys.'

The randomly chosen winner will be able to choose a digital collage sheet from Lunagirl Images.

The fourth sponsor is me!

The randomly chosen winner will receive a Vintage Chic Creations design pad - 32 sheets with 4 x 8 designs (photo to follow)

Please visit the websites of these generous sponsors and support them - you will be spoiled for choice!

Please look down the sidebar on the right to see all of the sponsors giving out prizes during this year - quite a few new ones as well as others who have been giving generously in the past. I am so thankful for everyone coming on board to support me. When buying your crafting goodies, please click on the links to see what's on offer in their online stores and support them as much as you can with your orders.

For my first card I used a lovely image kindly supplied by one of the sponsors, Lunagirl Images. You can read about this on My Crafty Outlook here.

For my second card, I've used a lovely image kindly supplied by one of our other sponsors this week, Dazzling Ace Designs. You can read about this on My Crafty Outlook here.

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques - and this week I'd like to see vintage creations ... or anything goes as long as it's Christmas - the choice is yours.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge - please add a link to your blog post (not your blog, but the actual post where your creation can be found) by 22:00 UK time Friday 9 September 2016. Please include a link to this blogpost within the post for your creation.

You can enter as many times as you wish and also link to any other challenges that allow you to do so, but new work only, please.

A new challenge will be set on Saturday 10 September 2016 when there will be four prizes, thanks to generous sponsors.

Please add your link to inlinkz. If by any chance it disappears, please leave a comment with the link to your blog post and I will make sure it is added.

If you haven't done so already, please become a follower and grab my bright pink button to post on your sidebar and help continue to spread the word about this challenge blog - thank you.

Please also consider going to CHNC Facebook page and clicking 'like' if you haven't done so already and encourage your friends to do the same. We now have 462 'likes', but there's plenty of room for more! I always try to show at least one of my creations for the next challenge in advance and it's a good place to catch up with any news, winners etc.

Don't forget that 'anything goes' monthly challenges are on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra blog - you can share any Christmas creation you make throughout the whole month, including those that you link here - there is no restriction on the number of entries you can make throughout the month - the link for CHNC challenge extra for September is here.

I also run a challenge blog called Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - anything goes as long as you use some patterned paper - a randomly chosen prize winner every month. Please click on the link to find out more. If you have used patterned paper for your Christmas creation, why not enter it there too. And please be aware that the Patterned Paper Challenge is not restricted to Christmas - it is for any occasions as long as some patterned paper has been used.

Thank you for your support

I look forward to seeing your entries

An InLinkz Link-up

CHNC challenge 296: use a sentiment

If you didn't receive a comment from me for your lovely entry for last week's challenge 295, please forgive me. I was going to catch up last evening or the one before, but, unfortunately John had to go to hospital overnight Thursday/Friday because he had injured his leg in a fall and couldn't weight bear. He is OK-ish now, using a walking frame to help. This meant that I completely lost a night's sleep and have been struggling this evening (Friday) to get everything ready for publishing the new challenge.

Please note that I publish the prize winners here and on our facebook page, but don't notify winners individually - it is up to you all to check to see if you have won and email me as requested. There are one or two unclaimed prizes, so it's worth having a look back to see if you were a winner.

Please note that my email to send to is craftyhazelnut@gmail.com

Before I tell you about this week's challenge, I need to let you know the winners of challenge 295. There were four opportunities to win a prize.

The first winner:

Number 34: Suze #2, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Suze. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $21 worth of digital images from Bugaboo Stamps.

The second winner:

Number 5: Rainey's craft room, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Rainey. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your five digital images from QKR Stampede.

The third winner:

Number 24: Julie O, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Julie. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your three digital stamps from Robyn's Fetish.

The fourth winner:

Number 12: Jane Willis, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Jane. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your three digital images from Digital Paper Craft.

As this is the 4th Saturday in the month, this is the theme for:

Challenge 296:

use a sentiment

This week there are five opportunities to win a prize as usual, winners will be chosen randomly. I do hope we will get a lot of entries this week to encourage these wonderful sponsors.

The first sponsor is Foil Play:

'Foil Play has an enormous selection of crafting staples from classic tried and tested brands for all occasions at great prices. Speedy despatch is always a priority, UK p&p is free on all orders over £10 and you'll get free Kanban die cut toppers if you spend over £20.'

The randomly chosen winner will receive a lucky dip pack of Kanban products.

The second sponsor is Ooh la la Creations:

A randomly chosen winner will be able to choose a CD-rom of their choice - and there are so many wonderful ones to choose from.

 The third sponsor is Crafty Sentiments:

'We are a small family fun online company that offers crafters fun and whimsical unmounted rubber stamps, digital stamps as well as cutting dies all from our very own exclusive range. Perfect for your cards and scrapbooks! Our stamps are made from deep etched grey rubber and our cutting dies are made from good quality metal from the USA and UK. We also stock essential craft products for your scrapbooking and card making needs.'

The randomly chosen winner will receive three digis of their choice from Crafty Sentiments:.

The fourth sponsor is Lozzy:

Lozzy is the leader of A bit more time to craft challenge blog and also More mixed media challenge blog and will generously give the randomly chosen winner their choice of three sets of papers from her wonderful selection - you can see Lozzy's papers here in her Etsy shop.

The randomly chosen winner will receive their choice of three sets of papers from Lozzy's wonderful selection.

The fifth sponsor is new to CHNC: Oddball Art Co by Lizzy Love:

"Lizzy has always loved the stranger, quirkier side of life and that is exactly what she loves to create. Her art described as a perfect combination of sweet and sour that glitters up the grunge! As a lover of all things whimsical, kawaii and creepy cute, she throws in some Pastel Goth with a touch of glam, punk & rockabilly pinup!
She has certainly never been a mainstream type of girl and definitely won't fit into your stereotypical cookie cutter artists role; but rather she finds beauty in the truly unique, big eyed creepy little cuties with a bittersweet sadness. She is never truly happier then when she is in her art studio painting or sewing, creating a whimsical dream world easily recognizable as her signature style of creepy yet cute, all the way from the haunting darkness to the rainbowtastic, Lizzy’s creations are lovingly sprinkled with a heartbreaking sweetness.
Growing up a child of the 80's, pop rocks princess, with an extreme fondness for anything candy coated, Kawaii Kitten & Ziggy Stardust, all of which had a major influence in the work that she is creating today. Lizzy employs many different mediums when she creates, anything from mixed media painting to sewing with many different textiles, the end result always being the same; A whimsical dream world filled with big eyed beauties, creepy little cuties and quirky monsters of all shapes and sizes."

The randomly chosen winner will receive three digital images of their choice from Oddball Art Co by Lizzy Love.

Please visit the websites of these generous sponsors and support them - you will be spoiled for choice!

Please look down the sidebar on the right to see all of the sponsors giving out prizes during this year - quite a few new ones as well as others who have been giving generously in the past. I am so thankful for everyone coming on board to support me. When buying your crafting goodies, please click on the links to see what's on offer in their online stores and support them as much as you can with your orders.

For my card I used Christmas digital papers printed out,l kindly supplied by Lozzy as one of this week's sponsors. You can read about this on My Crafty Outlook here.

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques - and this week please use a sentiment on your Christmas creation.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge - please add a link to your blog post (not your blog, but the actual post where your creation can be found) by 22:00 UK time Friday 2 September 2016. Please include a link to this blogpost within the post for your creation.

You can enter as many times as you wish and also link to any other challenges that allow you to do so, but new work only, please.

A new challenge will be set on Saturday 3 September 2016 when there will be four prizes, thanks to generous sponsors.

Please add your link to inlinkz. If by any chance it disappears, please leave a comment with the link to your blog post and I will make sure it is added.

If you haven't done so already, please become a follower and grab my bright pink button to post on your sidebar and help continue to spread the word about this challenge blog - thank you.

Please also consider going to CHNC Facebook page and clicking 'like' if you haven't done so already and encourage your friends to do the same. We now have 463 'likes' - another new one this week - but there's plenty of room for more! I always try to show at least one of my creations for the next challenge in advance and it's a good place to catch up with any news, winners etc.

Don't forget that 'anything goes' monthly challenges are on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra blog - you can share any Christmas creation you make throughout the whole month, including those that you link here - there is no restriction on the number of entries you can make throughout the month - the link for CHNC challenge extra for August is here.

I also run a challenge blog called Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - anything goes as long as you use some patterned paper - a randomly chosen prize winner every month. Please click on the link to find out more. If you have used patterned paper for your Christmas creation, why not enter it there too. And please be aware that the Patterned Paper Challenge is not restricted to Christmas - it is for any occasions as long as some patterned paper has been used.

Thank you for your support

I look forward to seeing your entries

An InLinkz Link-up

CHNC challenge 295: cute or anything goes as long as it's Christmas

Last week's challenge wasn't the easiest ... the colour brown isn't perhaps the most popular colour to use for Christmas creations, but there were 35 wonderful entries - thanks so much, everyone.

Please note that I publish the prize winners here and on our facebook page, but don't notify winners individually - it is up to you all to check to see if you have won and email me as requested. There are one or two unclaimed prizes, so it's worth having a look back to see if you were a winner.

Please note that my email to send to is craftyhazelnut@gmail.com

Before I tell you about this week's challenge, I need to let you know the winners of challenge 294. There were four opportunities to win a prize.

The first winner:

Number 25: Papierkram, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Papierkram. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your three individual images or one entire digital set from Beccy's Place.Designs.

The second winner:

Number 27: Suze #5, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Suze. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $10 voucher to spend at Di's Digi Stamps.

The third winner:

Number 7: Margaret A (granmargaret), who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Margaret. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your five digital images from Eureka Stamps.

The fourth winner:

Number 2: Cartai, who shared this lovely card:

Congratulations, Cartai. Please email me at craftyhazelnut@gmail.com so I can arrange for you to receive your $15 gift certificate to spend at SVGattic.com.

As this is the 3rd Saturday in the month, this is the theme for:

Challenge 295:

cute
or anything goes as long as it's Christmas

This week there are four opportunities to win a prize as usual, winners will be chosen randomly. I do hope we will get a lot of entries this week to encourage these wonderful sponsors.

The first sponsor is Bugaboo Stamps:

Bugaboo Stamps are proud to sponsor this challenge:

Everything That You Ever Wanted to Know About Bugaboo Stamps: A Short Essay

As if raising five children in the frozen land of the North was not enough of a challenge, Jodie Mackrell decided to dip her cold little Canadian toes into the world of papercrafting by opening an online store full of her illustrations. That was two years ago. Today Bugaboo Stamps is one of the leading companies in digital images, and we're still growing! From seriously snarky to sugary sweet to sublimely soulful all the way over to the other side of the super sexy spectrum, you're bound to find all that you need and more to create your paper projects. Jodie works very hard to provide New Releases and Freebies every week!

If your taste runs to rubber (and you know who you are), you can find Bugaboo Stamps at Totally Stampalicious. And finally, join the Bugaboo Stamps DT for weekly challenges at Catch the Bug.

Bugaboo Stamps are offering $21 of digital stamps to the randomly chosen winner.

The second sponsor is QKR Stampede:

'Do you have a sense of humor? Are you looking for a cute stamp? Then, we are the company for you! QKR Stampede is the somewhat cute somewhat quirky rubber and digital stamp company. We showcase the artwork of Ken Herrod, who had a unique, somewhat quirky style with lots of humor and character. You are sure to get a chuckle out of our stamps! We have been offering our unique stamps and supplies to the craft industry for over 15 years. At QKR Stampede our images are available as un-mounted, natural red rubber stamps OR as digital stamps! If QKR Stampede Stamps aren't exactly what you are looking for, don’t miss out on the sister companies: Eureka Stamps, Biblical Impressions Rubber Stamps, or the newest addition; Alluring Impressions.'

The randomly chosen winner will receive five digital images of their choice from QKR Stampede.

The third sponsor is Robyn's Fetish:

Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps And More is proud to sponsor this challenge.

Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps And More, a division of I Did It Creations, was created and is

owned by Robyn Weinrib.  Robyn offers a wonderful variety of digital stamps and digital papers, designed to meet the needs of all digital paper crafting addicts for every occasion.

Robyn’s Fetish Digital Stamps And More is happy to award three digital stamps of the winner’s choice to the winner of this challenge.

The fourth sponsor is Digital Paper Craft:

'Digital Paper Craft is your source of Digital Clipart, Scrapbook Supplies, Digital Stamps, Scrapbook Kits and Graphic Design. All images, papers, etc. created by gifted artist Siobhan and can be found at https://www.etsy.com/shop/DigitalPaperCraft?ref=si_shop.

The randomly chosen winner will receive three digital images of their choice from Digital Paper Craft.

Please visit the websites of these generous sponsors and support them - you will be spoiled for choice!

Please look down the sidebar on the right to see all of the sponsors giving out prizes during this year - quite a few new ones as well as others who have been giving generously in the past. I am so thankful for everyone coming on board to support me. When buying your crafting goodies, please click on the links to see what's on offer in their online stores and support them as much as you can with your orders.

For my card I used the cute Christie angel kindly supplied by Robyn's Fetish as one of this week's sponsors. You can read about this on My Crafty Outlook here.

Now it's over to you. As usual, you can use any materials, any techniques - and this week please make your creation cute ...  or anything goes as long as it's Christmas ... the choice is up to you.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge - please add a link to your blog post (not your blog, but the actual post where your creation can be found) by 22:00 UK time Friday 26 August 2016. Please include a link to this blogpost within the post for your creation.

You can enter as many times as you wish and also link to any other challenges that allow you to do so, but new work only, please.

A new challenge will be set on Saturday 27 August 2016 when there will be five prizes, thanks to generous sponsors.

Please add your link to inlinkz. If by any chance it disappears, please leave a comment with the link to your blog post and I will make sure it is added.

If you haven't done so already, please become a follower and grab my bright pink button to post on your sidebar and help continue to spread the word about this challenge blog - thank you.

Please also consider going to CHNC Facebook page and clicking 'like' if you haven't done so already and encourage your friends to do the same. We now have 463 'likes' - another new one this week - but there's plenty of room for more! I always try to show at least one of my creations for the next challenge in advance and it's a good place to catch up with any news, winners etc.

Don't forget that 'anything goes' monthly challenges are on my Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra blog - you can share any Christmas creation you make throughout the whole month, including those that you link here - there is no restriction on the number of entries you can make throughout the month - the link for CHNC challenge extra for August is here.

I also run a challenge blog called Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - anything goes as long as you use some patterned paper - a randomly chosen prize winner every month. Please click on the link to find out more. If you have used patterned paper for your Christmas creation, why not enter it there too. And please be aware that the Patterned Paper Challenge is not restricted to Christmas - it is for any occasions as long as some patterned paper has been used.

Thank you for your support

I look forward to seeing your entries

An InLinkz Link-up